Lesson Learnt. We’ve Been Scammed!

After crossing the Dardanelles and having only been on the Asian continent for only few hours we were involved in a scam by three Turkish con artists.

We had just descended down a winding coastal road when out of nowhere a white car driven by a thin Turkish man with a moustache and two women (who turned out to be mother & daughter) started flashing their lights and motioning with their hands that our rear left wheel was wobbling. Seeing the two women and thinking that they didn’t look too dodgy I thought that they must be pretty genuine. As soon as we had pulled over the man was out of his car, strode over to the faulty wheel, cut off the hubcap and started tightening the wheel nuts. He then put his fingers inside the tyre and pulled them out to reveal that he had oil on the tips of his fingers. He indicated that it is a small problem now but in time it would get bigger. In limited English he said with a large grin on his face, ‘Tourist, good!”. Seeing the oil I thought it must be a serious problem and it confirmed in my mind that it must be a genuine fault with the wheel. Chrissy’s perspective was different. She had heard of a scam in Serbia how people pull you over saying that you have something wrong with your car and then they mugg you. Knowing this Chrissy didn’t trust them from the start and tried to block the front door that the mother (who had got out of the car too) was hanging around like a bad smell. When the man asked Chrissy to look under the car she was reluctant to leave as she was still watching the mother like a hawk and thought she might grab our valuables in this moment. Chrissy’s impression of them and their intentions only changed when she looked under the van and saw the oil.

Cutting a long story short. We followed them to a safe place on a flat piece of ground. By the time I had got out of the van he had removed the wheel. He put his fingers on the hub and withdrew them quickly indicating that the metal was very hot and that something must have been jamming against the metal to cause the heat. He removed the hub with tools that he fortunately had in his boot and pulled out the half-shaft. A little later he motioned that the flange and bearing had become loose in the hub and was the cause of the problem. During this time he pointed to the sky saying ‘Allah’ and pointing to the wheel trying to make out how lucky we were that they had seen us. With more gesticulations and pointing to the wheel he made out that if the problem was not fixed now the wheel could sever off. He then drove off in his car saying that he would find us a new part.

Whilst he was away we started talking to the two women. Although the daughter’s English wasn’t fantastic it was still good enough to have a basic conversation. She explained how the man was her uncle and that he was a mechanic. During our conversation she said two strange things. She said, ‘Mum good. Uncle bad’ and ‘brother had been stabbed in the heart and had died’. Her mum tried to ask us if we heard or felt any problem with our wheel and looked surprised when we didn’t?

In half an hour the uncle returned with a new half-shaft, flange and bearing. He made out how he’d been to three different dealers and finally the last one sent a motorbike courier to find one. After fitting it he gesticulated again that it was fixed and that it wouldn’t be a problem anymore. It was only at this point that alarm bells started to wring. He said that the part he replaced cost 500 Turkish Lira and he would take 200 Lira for his time, which equated to 350 Euro! As we didn’t have enough money on us we agreed that they would follow us to an ATM. During this short trip to the bank the following things went through in my mind:

1. When he removed the wheel I saw a large stain of oil at the base of the wheel but the oil had not been splattered all around the inside of wheel - as would be expected as a result of the rotating wheel.
2. It was very convenient he had clippers on him to remove the electric ties that secured the hubcap to the wheel when they first pulled us over.
3. It was even more convenient that he had all his tools on him and the speed that he returned with the new part was also suspect.
4. They had apparently been heading in the other direction so how could they have seen the problem.
5. We hadn’t felt or seen our wheel wobbling and we didn’t actually have a broken part that we could re-examine.

Unfortunately, it was too late and we felt were in a position that we had to pay them. On reflection it was the perfect scam. The Uncle worked so quickly that it didn’t give us an opportunity to question what he was doing and convinced us that there was a genuine problem. The oil on the wheel must have been sprayed on when they first pulled us over and having two women with him too definitely made him less suspect. Chrissy also heard from a German in the campsite we stayed at that night that the same scam had happened to their friends (expats) the previous year, so they must be highly practiced at this devious scam.

We reported the incident to the police, the British Embassy and our travel insurers but they were all unable to do anything to assist us. Although we felt frustrated that we had fallen for the scam we were pleased that they didn’t rob us and no one was hurt. It has also been a great lesson, which prompted us to go through all the ‘worst case scenarios’ we could think of and to make plans of what we will do in case they happen during the rest of our trip. It was an expensive lesson but a valuable experience for the rest of our journey and it will certainly make us more wary of who we trust in the future.

Posted by Colin